BURN is Melanie’s debut novel, it is an affecting, powerful novel about prejudice and growing up on the margins from exciting new Australian voice.

When a bushfire gets out of hand and puts three people in hospital, Andrew, a young Indigenous Australian boy knows the police will be looking for him first.

Coming from a broken home, and estranged father, and a neglectful mother, Andrew found solitude in lighting fires. Be it from the sense of control he finally had over a tiny part of his life, or the fact that it often summoned his parents attention, Andrew’s lighter is his source of comfort in his often changing and overwhelming world. .

Join Melanie as she sits down with one of our passionate Booksellers at Orion to discuss her debut novel’s themes and connections in a friendly and honest chat suitable for audiences of all ages, followed by a meet and greet and book signing.

Melanie Saward is a proud descendant of the Bigambul and Wakka Wakka peoples. She is a Tulmur (Ipswich) based writer, an associate lecturer in creative writing at QUT, and a PhD student.